Short Range Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 319 PM EDT Wed Jul 04 2018 Valid 00Z Thu Jul 05 2018 - 00Z Sat Jul 07 2018 ...Some severe weather and locally heavy rainfall is expected across portions of the central Plains, Midwest and Northeast through the end of the week... ...A gradual break in the heatwave is expected across most of the Midwest and Eastern U.S. over the next couple of days... ...Very hot temperatures are expected across the Southwest U.S... Expect areas of showers and thunderstorms to continue along a cold front as it presses eastward across areas of the central Plains and Midwest tonight and Thursday, and gradually getting into areas of the Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Thursday night and Friday. Some severe weather will be possible, especially overnight, for parts of the central Plains and upper Midwest, and heavy rainfall will also locally be a concern with some potential for flash flooding possible. By Friday, much of the heavy rainfall threat will be focused across the Mid-Atlantic region as the aforementioned cold front arrives and begins crossing the region. This cold front will also be instrumental in breaking the heatwave that has been impacting the Midwest and Eastern U.S. over the last several days. Meanwhile, plenty of moisture is expected to remain in place across a large area of the Gulf Coast states for the remainder of the week which will foster numerous showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours. More organized heavy rainfall will be expected in particular across areas of south-central Texas tonight where a weak area of low pressure will be concentrating very heavy and slow-moving pockets of showers and thunderstorms which will be capable of causing flash flooding. Across the Western U.S., the story will be rising temperatures and especially across the Desert Southwest over the next couple of days. High temperatures are expected to reach as hot as 110 to 115 over portions of southern California, southern Nevada and Arizona as a ridge of high pressure advances west from the southern Plains and strengthens over the Four Corners region. This will increase the potential for dangerous wildfire conditions given very low relative humidities. Most of the West should generally stay dry going into the early part of the weekend, but there will gradually be some monsoonal moisture at least attempting to lift up across the Four Corners region by Saturday which will foster some widely scattered showers and thunderstorms. Much of this rainfall threat will be confined to the southern Rockies. Orrison Graphics available at www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/basicwx/basicwx_ndfd.php